Attached.

Running head: PHILOSOPHY

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Philosophy

Name of the student

Institution

Name of the Professor

Submission Date

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Option one
Lao Tzu’s biography is encased in legend – much like the life of Gautama Siddhartha, the
Buddha. Why is it that the details of the lives of the great founders of Taoism and Buddhism
are not the stuff of historical interest in anything like the way the details of the lives of Moses,
of Jesus, and of Mohammed are?
The details of the lives of the great founders of Taoism and Buddhism are not the stuff of
historical interest in anything like the way the details of the lives of Moses, of Jesus, and of
Mohammed are, this is because the lives of Moses, Jesus and Mohammad seem to have a
connection in that; first Moses, Jesus and Mohammad were great prophets who received
revelations directly from God and acted as His messengers. God instructed them on what He
wanted them to pass to his people concerning how He expected them to lead sacred lives which
were pleasing to Him. Moreover, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed received the revelation that,
people should worship only God alone and not worship other gods because this did not please
Him. However, great founders of Taoism and Buddhism never received any direct revelations
from God but only believed that life was a circle of reincarnation. In addition, they also believed
that each and every person was to pay for his or her bad deeds through several lives whereby
one had to go through intense pain before he or she could obtain enlightenment. Lastly, the
great founders of Taoism and Buddhism believed that everyday life could only be peaceful if
only they followed the ways of their leaders Tao and Buddha and avoid following the ways of
the society which could not offer them peace and harmony.
Option two
According to Harris, how is it that religious moderates supposedly "betray faith and reason
equally"?

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According to Harris, religious moderates betray faith and reason equally because they have
inherited various unethical standards from the bible for example; the books of old testament
like proverbs, Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Exodus oblige parents to either kill or thrush their
children when they disobey them. Nevertheless, in the book of Genesis, it has been stated that
people should stone not only those who labour on Sabbath but also those who commit adultery.
In relation to the New Testament, Jesus urges his followers to remain true to the laws stated in
the Old Testament. Moreover, religious moderates like Augustine said that people who go
against the Christian religion should be tortured mercilessly while Aquinas said that they were
supposed to be murdered (Kato, 2016)
Most importantly, Martin Luther king and Calvin cheered the killing of innocent Jews and
apostates. In the modern world, various religious moderates are against vaccination against
illnesses like human papillomavirus which is one of the main sexually transmitted illness in the
United States. Nevertheless, the Vatican is against the use of condom even without considering
how it prevents against the transmission of HIV by 95%. To crown it all, Christopher Hitchens
states that Mother Teresa was a friend of poverty but not a friend to the poor, this is because
she told the poor that their suffering was gift offered to them by God.

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References
Kato, J. K. (2016). Should There Really Be an “End of Faith”? Hybridity and Sam Harris’s
Proposal for an “End” to Religion. In Religious Language and Asian American
Hybridity (pp. 59-69). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
Muesse, M. W. (2017). Five Wise Men: The Lives and Teachi...